A brand that’s been leaving its mark on the sim racing scene for the past five years, and has even more years of experience before that, Simagic is a go-to brand for specialist PC sim racing equipment.
With a wide array of options available to its customers, you can find them as useful for drifting as for formula racing, for rallying as for GT racing, and customise your gear in endless ways through their SimPro Manager 2 software.
In this article, we’ll be taking an in-depth look at Simagic’s range and figure out the right options for you.
Wheelbases
Simagic were ahead of the sim racing curve when they released their range of wheelbases. As is becoming more and more common with brands today, they only have Direct Drive wheelbases. This means that they’re focused on the most high-end equipment, not settling for the tried-and-tested solutions of belt-driven and gear-driven technology.
Their entry-level solution is the Alpha Mini. With a peak output of 10Nm, it’s a good rival to the current offerings from Thrustmaster with their T818 and Logitech’s G PRO wheel. It’s easy to set up and, with 262144ppr Encoder Resolution, delivers seamless feedback to the wheel to make you feel like you’re right there in your car of choice.
Next up is the well-known Alpha. It’s been on the market for a couple of years now, and the 15Nm wheelbase has been turning heads as effectively as it’s helped users turn corners. As with the other wheelbases in the range, it’s made of a sleek CNC-machined aluminium with a modest size that fits snugly onto most conventional rigs on top of the punch that it packs. Looks can be deceptive, that much is for sure.
On that same note, the top-end Alpha U dials it up to 11 – or 23 – thanks to its 23Nm output. There’s virtually zero latency with the Alpha U as well, with the response time being down to 1 millisecond. That’s a faster reaction time than Valtteri Bottas’ lightning-quick starts. It costs less than a lot of its mainstream rivals as well, proving that you can find specialist technology whilst keeping your hard-earned money.
Steering Wheels
Simagic’s range of steering wheels is both a mix of pre-built solutions as well as a build-your-own solution. If you know exactly what you’re looking for, you can pick up a wheel rim as well as their GT Pro Hub and a Quick Release to boot, allowing an easy way into their ecosystem as well as giving great offerings for people looking to mix and match different brands to create their own bespoke sim racing solution.
The GT1-SD is their entry-level wheel. A flat-bottom round rim, it is an adaptable solution that can be used for pretty much any kind of sim racing. It’s also available with both leather and alcantara options, meaning that you can choose the feel that suits you best and is something that few other brands on the market offer. However, if you’re specifically looking for something with a fully round design, you can pick up their GT1-SR.
The next solution is the GTS rim. A round rim with a more discrete design, it boasts 7 customisable RGB buttons on top of 2 rotary encoders and 2 more multi-position rotary switches. This is not only a wonderful design that can work well for rallying and drifting, but it’s also one that can be a fantastic starter option for the finer details of GT racing on top of the previously mentioned GT1 range.
Next up are the top-line GT solutions, which each boast a dual-clutch solution. The extra paddles at the back of the GT PRO and GTC help you to pull away from pit stops and the grid with ease, whilst the GTC also has an elegant open-top design that would make you feel right at home behind the wheel of some old-school prototype cars as well. Both also feature 4 thumb rotary switches on the side of the wheel, as well as another 2 on the front of the wheel! Add on even more customisable RGB buttons and 2 more multi-position switches, and this is a solution that someone looking for their next sim racing wheel can’t turn down!
And lastly, but certainly, by no means least, we have the formula-style rims. The GT4 rim will make you feel at home behind the wheel of any of the well-loved tin top series’ cars, with an immersive design that lends itself to solutions both with and without the dual-clutch, whilst the FX and FX Pro come with all of the bells and whistles that you’d expect from a specialist brand like Simagic.
The FX is a more modest solution, but still has 4 thumb rotary switches and a further 3 on the front of the wheelbase as you would expect on a junior-level formula car. The FX Pro, to add on to this, has an amazing 4.3″ LCD display on top of 5 – that’s right, 5 – rotary switches on the front of the wheel alone!
Pedals
Simagic have two main lines of pedal: the P1000 and the P2000. However, it’s what you can do with these pedals that really sets them apart from the competition.
The P1000s are the entry-level pedals. Available with both a modular and a hydraulic option, these are highly adjustable and customisable solutions that can be run in both 2-pedal and 3-pedal setups. This allows the user to adjust their setup to be the most immersive that it can be, which is essential if you drive multiple different types of cars that have a variety of pedal configurations.
The P1000s are also available in an inverted format – both for the modular and for the hydraulic configurations – which allows drivers to feel as if they’re behind the wheel of a more conventional car where the pedals hang from above your feet rather than sitting on the floor.
The P2000s turn it up an extra notch. Not only are they also a hydraulic solution, but they also feature a 200kg load cell brake pedal features a 1:1 replica of a race car’s brake cylinder and a realistic 1mm dead zone at the front of the pedals so you don’t have to worry about accidentally dragging the brakes when you rest your foot on the pedal! Another cylinder on the throttle, known as the 3-in-1 cylinder, ensures more precision and stability through a load cell that measures the depth and travel of the pedal for a more realistic feel.
These pedal solutions also come with fantastic add-ons. Not only can you upgrade your modular P1000s to have a hydraulic brake, both in the conventional and inverted configurations, there is also the option to add Haptic sensors to any Simagic pedal solution. The Haptic Pedal Reactors add an extra dimension of realism to pedals as users are able to recognise the unmistakable vibrations that come up when you’re pushing to the very limits of the car’s ability before locking up or that sheer joy of pushing the throttle all the way open.
Shifters & Handbrakes
Careful not to be outdone outside of the wheels, wheelbases, and pedals, Simagic also has a variety of shifters and handbrakes that can take your immersion that extra mile or two.
Starting off with their shifters, the DS-8X features 8 forward gears as well as a reverse gear. That’s very unique to the sim racing market, as most of the DS-8X’s rivals will either have 6 or 7 forward gears. With an easy switch between H-pattern and Sequential mode too, it is definitely a solution to look out for.
Simagic also offer the Q1 Sequential Shifter, which comes with LEDs that can be programmed to show optimum shifting revs as well as other parameters such as if you’re selecting neutral or if you’ve switched your lights or wipers on.
As for handbrakes, the TB-1 is a load cell handbrake with a peak measured force of 100kg. It’s hard to expect that even the Kalle Rovanperäs of the world need something with that much force behind it, which is why Simagic has done so well to cater for all with this solution.
However, one-upping themselves, they also have the TB-RS which brings sim racing handbrakes to the next level with a hydraulic solution that fully immerses you in your rally car, drift car, or even your road car! Both options allow you to easily reconfigure them for any mounting or deployment solution that you need, meaning that they’re adaptable as well as immersive.
Accessories
Much like we saw when we went for an in-depth look into Asetek Simsport’s offerings, Simagic also offers their users a plethora of accessories to enhance their experiences away from the traditional peripherals.
First up are their Racing Gloves. Made from comfortable materials with microfibres for extra grip and electricity-conductive sheepskin on the index fingers so that you don’t have to remove your gloves to use your phone, Simagic has thought of what their users both want and need when they’ve come up with this option.
Another amazing option that they’ve come up with is the additional wheel mount. This allows you to mount your wheel rim to a wall or rack when you’re not using it, freeing up desk or floor space and allowing you to show off your beautiful collection in one handy place!
A third, and frankly beautiful, accessory is the LED heel stop. It’s something you don’t see every sim racing company do, and you can set it to match the lights from your computer or you can set it to light up differently depending on your revs or your inputs! There’s little else on the market that even remotely does what this product does.
